“Fear” is proving to be a pervasive effect in the early stages of our Pathfinder game. Fear first routed nearly all our party while engaging a mummy, and then in this most recent game put flight to all of us at a critical moment of a big dungeon battle. But more of that in a moment …

We didn’t get as much done in our last game when compared to previous sessions, probably because we spent too much time farting around with a shopping expedition. With a bit of coin in our pockets it was wise to upgrade our gear, but we could have slain a Beholder in the time it took us to settle on a couple suits of armor and a few adventure kits.

I know, I know … there are no Beholders in Pathfinder. I don’t care.

behold!

Anyway, with our armor classes marginally improved, we returned to the smuggling tunnel beneath the Sandpoint Glassworks and discovered the new tunnels let onto a very ancient tunnel complex, which jibes with the information we’d already uncovered about a threat to the city from the depths below.

Exploring the dungeon confirmed our emerging (and worst) suspicions — we’ve run afoul of cultists of Lamashtu, a dark god of particularly twisted and icky things. The ancient Runelord Alaznist figures into this too, to judge by the big statue we found in the dungeon.

Runelord Alaznist

We fought our way through waves of Sinspawn before finding the heart of the temple, where some little, flying imp summoned monsters and had the best of us (thanks to that Fear effect) for a moment or two. It looked bad, but the crew recovered in good form, and got the little devil boxed in (thanks in part to the illusion of a hovering web via Amrudrel’s Silent Image spell, that I think helped keep our enemy grounded). After that, it was all over but the hacking.

We grabbed some treasure and retreated to town. We need to send a team of dwarves down there with pickaxes to break up that temple. And we need better resistance to Fear … at least until our Paladin hits level three and begins radiating an Aura of Courage!

In the meantime, we need to puzzle out the cloyingly familiar runes we saw on that subterranean temple wall …